The present invention relates to rotary mower cutterbars and more specifically relates to modular gear housings for such cutterbars.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,012,635 issued to Walters et al. on May 7, 1991 discloses a rotary mower having a gear housing constructed of identical, low profile modules. Each module contains a pair of meshed spur-type idler gears, and a pinion gear meshed with one of the idler gears. The pinion gear is mounted to or forms part of the cutter unit drive shaft. The modules have vertical planar sides which are placed in face-to-face engagement with each other and bolted together to form a cutterbar of a desired length. When bolted together, the spur gears of one module each mesh with the adjacent spur gear of the adjacent module with the pitch line of the meshed spur gears of the adjacent modules being located along the plane of separation, or the interface of the side faces of the adjacent modules.
The above-described patented modular cutterbar has the drawback that the vertical sides of the modules do not allow removal of an individual module, which is between two other modules, for repair without removing all modules to one side of the module in need of repair. This is because there is not sufficient clearance for permitting the meshed idler gears at the interfaces of the module to be removed and the adjacent modules to be shifted out of mesh and free of the adjacent modules.